Repsol Honda riders end Friday with Pedrosa in fourth and Márquez fifth, following a crash and after leading FP1.
Dani Pedrosa improved on his FP1 times by more than a second in FP2, leading the way in the final stages and placing just 0.115s off the quickest rider.
Marc Márquez went fastest in FP1 and much of FP2, until crash at Turn 16 halted his progress 10 minutes from the end.
The reigning World Champion was able to get back out on track on his second bike after a brief stop in the pits, but was unable to improve his times.
Marc Márquez – 5th
“I’m quite happy with today. Just the small crash at the end was a bit of shame, but in general I felt good on the bike from the beginning, which is positive. We also started FP2 very well, but then we decided to try a few different things on the setup that didn’t work as expected. That aside, I’m feeling comfortable at this track and we’re working very well. Tomorrow we’ll work more on the tyre choice, focusing on the hard option in order to make a few comparisons with what we did today.”
Dani Pedrosa – 4th
“This morning the track conditions were not 100% after the yesterday’s rain, and even though they improved this afternoon, the grip wasn’t as good as when we came here for the test two weeks ago. Anyway, we were able to do quite a lot of work, especially on the tyres, looking to understand which one adapts better to the track, and also on the suspension settings. Tomorrow we’ll keep working on the tyre choice and we’ll also concentrate to improve in the third sector, where we’re still missing something.”
